Closed Casket (novel)

Did You Know?

• An article in The New Yorker suggested the novel was inspired by Sophie Hannah's suspicions about her editor Dan Mallory, who, like the charismatic Scotcher, faked a terminal illness and pretended to be his own brother.
• Good Housekeeping wrote: 'Closed Casket is deviously plotted, deeply satisfying and does the grande dame of crime proud.'
• Sunday Times wrote: 'Sparkling second outing for Hannah's re-imagined Poirot... it's the utter fiendish unpredictability of the plot that makes Sophie the new Agatha.'

Plot summary

Lady Athelinda Playford, a writer of children's mystery novels, calls her children, lawyers, Hercule Poirot, and Scotland Yard detective Edward Catchpool to her Irish home, Lillieoak in Clonakilty. During dinner, she reveals a drastic revision to her will: she has cut out her son Harry and daughter Claudia, leaving everything to her charming secretary, Joseph Scotcher, who is supposedly terminally ill with mere weeks to live. Harry’s wife Dorro reacts angrily, while Claudia and her fiancé, Dr. Randall Kimpton, show contempt.

Joseph, startled by the change, suddenly proposes to his nurse, Sophie Bourlet. That night, Sophie’s screams draw everyone to the scene of Joseph’s violent death. Sophie claims she saw Claudia beat him in the head with a club as he pleaded for his life, but the timing is off—Claudia arrived with the group and had changed clothes, which she shouldn’t have had time to do. An inquest reveals Joseph was already dead from strychnine poisoning before the blow, and he was not dying but perfectly healthy.

Poirot and Catchpool probe the family’s alibis, exposing multiple lies. Kimpton and Claudia admit they already knew Joseph was faking his illness; Kimpton had been a college friend but grew suspicious when Joseph claimed to be dying. His former girlfriend Iris left him for Joseph and later died under questionable circumstances. Lady Playford had also learned Joseph was a chronic liar; her will was a scheme to disrupt his deceptions and force him into rehabilitation.

She invited Poirot and Catchpool to protect against any violent reaction. Poirot returns from an Oxford trip and assembles everyone. He explains that Sophie’s account was flawed: she went into shock upon seeing Claudia strike Joseph, causing more time to pass than initially thought, which gave Claudia enough time to leave and change out of her bloodied clothes.

Continuity with Christie's original stories

Returning in this novel is Hannah's own creation, Scotland Yard inspector Edward Catchpool, who serves a similar function to Poirot's original sidekick, Arthur Hastings. The story takes place mere months after The Monogram Murders, suggesting it is sandwiched chronologically between The Mystery of the Blue Train (published 1928) and Peril at End House (1932). The novel features elements popular during the golden age of detective fiction, including a blueprint sketch of the house and an armchair detective's guide. It is set in the Irish Free State, an independent state founded in 1922 and lasting until 1937, with references to Irish nationalism and the destruction of homes belonging to descendants of the landed gentry.

Commissioning by Agatha Christie estate

Hannah's second novel featuring Hercule Poirot, the retired Belgian policeman turned private detective, follows 2014's The Monogram Murders. That earlier book was the first novel using one of Christie's original characters approved by her estate in the thirty-eight years after her death. Christie's final Poirot novel, Elephants Can Remember, came out in 1972, while Curtain, the character's swansong written in the 1940s, was published in 1976.